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13 Jun 2010, 03:28

I go with C. Not sure why OA is B.

(A) Most people in Kirlandia who are currently earning the minimum wage have been employed at their current jobs for less than a year >>> Irrelevant (B) Some firms in Kirlandia have paid workers considerably less than KD5.00 per hour, in violation of kirlandic employment regulation(C) Many businesses hire trainees at or near the minimum wage but must reward trained workers by keeping their pay levels above the pay level of trainees. (D) The greatest growth in Kirlandia’s economy in recent years has been in those sectors where workers earn wages that tend to be much higher than the minimum wage. >>> a bit too far (E) The current minimum wage is insufficient for a worker holding only one job to earn enough to support a family, even when working full time at that job. >>> Irrelevant

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Re: In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of [#permalink]

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31 May 2012, 14:02

I will go with C

Conclusion: The impact of the increase in the legal minimum wage in Kirlandia on wages will probably be minor / small. Premises:• The legal min wage in Kirlandia will increase from KD5.00 to KD5.50 per hour.• Resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up.• A very small proportion of all Kirlandic workers are currently receiving less than KD5.50 per hour.Assumption:Majority of people in Kirlandia who are earning wages are workers. There are few other types of labours that are earning wages in Kirlandia. Answer: C. Explanations are as follows.(A) Most people in Kirlandia who are currently earning the minimum wage have been employed at their current jobs for less than a year --> irrelevant; employment duration is not mentioned in the argument.

(B) Some firms in Kirlandia have paid workers considerably less than KD5.00 per hour, in violation of kirlandic employment regulation --> irrelevant; the argument is only discussing about the impact of the increase in legal minimal wage from KD5.00 to 5.50 on wages but not about firms that violate the law.

(C) Many businesses hire trainees at or near the minimum wage but must reward trained workers by keeping their pay levels above the pay level of trainees. --> Correct answer, it weakens the argument (conclusion). (1) Many businesses hire trainees [ besides workers, trainees also accounts for outstanding number of people earning wage in Kirlandia]. (2) Trainees are currently hired at minimum wage. The increase in legal min. wages in 2 months will lead to the increase in trainee's wage. (1)+(2) --> increase in legal min. wages will have greatly impact on wages in general in Kirlandia.

(D) The greatest growth in Kirlandia’s economy in recent years has been in those sectors where workers earn wages that tend to be much higher than the minimum wage. --> Irrelevant, there is no relation between the conclusion ( impact of the increase in legal minimum wage on wages) and the recent economy growth of Kirlandia

(E) The current minimum wage is insufficient for a worker holding only one job to earn enough to support a family, even when working full time at that job.--> This cannot weaken the argument since there is only a very small proportion of all Kirlandic workers are currently receiving less than KD5.50 per hour. If there are workers who are receiving current minimum wage and are now having more than one job, this has minimal impact on wage of all workers in Kirlandia. Therefore, if (E) is true, it can not undermine the argurment.

Re: In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of [#permalink]

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01 Jun 2012, 01:57

I go with C.

C) Many businesses hire trainees at or near the minimum wage but must reward trained workers by keeping their pay levels above the pay level of trainees.-->

Explanation: Most companies hire trainees on minimum wage and then have to soon give a hike once they are trained, hence the minimum wage(5.50 KKD) for most companies is only during the training period of employees. The effective minimum wage becomes much higher, once they employees are trained.

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02 Jun 2012, 22:57

hothihongcam wrote:

I go with C. Not sure why OA is B.

(A) Most people in Kirlandia who are currently earning the minimum wage have been employed at their current jobs for less than a year >>> Irrelevant (B) Some firms in Kirlandia have paid workers considerably less than KD5.00 per hour, in violation of kirlandic employment regulation(C) Many businesses hire trainees at or near the minimum wage but must reward trained workers by keeping their pay levels above the pay level of trainees. (D) The greatest growth in Kirlandia’s economy in recent years has been in those sectors where workers earn wages that tend to be much higher than the minimum wage. >>> a bit too far (E) The current minimum wage is insufficient for a worker holding only one job to earn enough to support a family, even when working full time at that job. >>> Irrelevant

Hi,

C indeed was a better fit.However, could you kindly explain why D is a bit too far. Is it simply because it is weakening one of the premises(economy growth incr. when wages incr. => inflation stabilized) and not the conclusion(workers actually find the incr.in wage worthy)??

Re: In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of [#permalink]

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04 Jun 2012, 17:54

puma wrote:

In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will increase from five Kirlandic dollars (KD5.00) per hour to KD5.50 per hour. Opponents of this increase have argued that the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up. In fact its impact on wages will probably be negligible, since only a very small proportion of all Kirlandic workers are currently receiving less than KD5.50 per hour.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Most people in Kirlandia who are currently earning the minimum wage have been employed at their current jobs for less than a year(B) Some firms in Kirlandia have paid workers considerably less than KD5.00 per hour, in violation of kirlandic employment regulation(C) Many businesses hire trainees at or near the minimum wage but must reward trained workers by keeping their pay levels above the pay level of trainees.(D) The greatest growth in Kirlandia's economy in recent years has been in those sectors where workers earn wages that tend to be much higher than the minimum wage.(E) The current minimum wage is insufficient for a worker holding only one job to earn enough to support a family, even when working full time at that job.

Premise: The increasing in minimum wage will drive up the inflation (1)

Conclusion: (1) is wrong because the proportion of Kirlandc workers who are receiving less than KD5.5 per hour is very small

The question stem is finding the weakened answer. Base on this conclusion, we are easy to find the answer which weakens it by find the proof that shows the proportion of workers who get wage under KD5.5 is very large.

Choice C is the correct answer, which states that there are many businesses hire trainee near KD 5.00/hour => There are many workers in this kinds of trainee => If the minimum wage increase, the wages of these trainees also increase, driving up the inlfation.
_________________

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28 Apr 2014, 18:29

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08 Mar 2016, 03:52

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

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Re: In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of [#permalink]

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16 May 2016, 10:31

Sunny143 wrote:

puma wrote:

In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will increase from five Kirlandic dollars (KD5.00) per hour to KD5.50 per hour. Opponents of this increase have argued that the resilting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up. In fact its impact on wages will probably be negligible, since only a very small proportion of all Kirlandic workers are currently receiving less than KD5.50 per hour.

Which of the following, if true, most seriuosly weakens the argument?

a) Most people in Kirlandia who are currently earning the minimum wage have been employed at their current jobs for less than a yearb) SOme firms in Kirlandia have paid workers considerably less than KD5.00 per hour, in violation of kirlandic employment regulationc) MAny businesses hire trainees at or near the minimum wage but must reward trained workers by keeping their paylevels above the pay level of trainees.d) The greatest growth in Kirlandia's economy in recent years has been in those sectors where workers earn wages that tend to be much higher than the minimum wage.e) THe current minimum wage is insufficient for a worker holding only one job to earn enough to support a family, even when working full time at that job.

Inflation is caused by too many dollars chasing too few goods with the resulting rise in prices. The central premise of the argument is that there wont be too many dollars out there in the market as the number of min wage workers are less in Kirlandia so the cummulative increase wont push inflation up. With this background, lets see the choices

A. Not relevant to increase money in the market.B. This is an interesting one. Since this has gone unreported, the recent rise wont touch these folks, they will continue to get considerably less anyway.C. If trainees get near minimum wage levels, so when the min wage levels go up, their wages will also go up. Hence this will have an effect of more money coming into the economy and driving up inflation....weakensD. Not relevantE. Not relevant.

C

Hi,

Thank you for posting your explanation but I am confused here, it says in argument that opponents of this policy are saying that inflation rate would go up , are we weakening opponents argument or opposing the policy over here ,because C is says that it would drive up the inflation hence supporting the opponent argument.

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16 May 2016, 12:13

1

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puma wrote:

In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of Kirlandia will increase from five Kirlandic dollars (KD5.00) per hour to KD5.50 per hour. Opponents of this increase have argued that the resulting rise in wages will drive the inflation rate up. In fact its impact on wages will probably be negligible, since only a very small proportion of all Kirlandic workers are currently receiving less than KD5.50 per hour.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Most people in Kirlandia who are currently earning the minimum wage have been employed at their current jobs for less than a year(B) Some firms in Kirlandia have paid workers considerably less than KD5.00 per hour, in violation of kirlandic employment regulation(C) Many businesses hire trainees at or near the minimum wage but must reward trained workers by keeping their pay levels above the pay level of trainees.(D) The greatest growth in Kirlandia's economy in recent years has been in those sectors where workers earn wages that tend to be much higher than the minimum wage.(E) The current minimum wage is insufficient for a worker holding only one job to earn enough to support a family, even when working full time at that job.

only a very small proportion of all Kirlandic workers are currently receiving less than KD5.50 per hour.

But from option (C) we can see that both skilled ( trained) and unskilled (trainee ) will be receiving hourly salary of KD 5.50 or more, thus it is affecting the entire workforce...

Hence option (C) is the correct answer choice as it is a weakener !!

megha_2709 wrote:

Hi,

Thank you for posting your explanation but I am confused here, it says in argument that opponents of this policy are saying that inflation rate would go up , are we weakening opponents argument or opposing the policy over here ,because C is says that it would drive up the inflation hence supporting the opponent argument.

Would really appreciate your help on this.

ThanksMegha

Rise in wages will occur on a small scale ------->Won't drive up the rate of Inflation

We are attempting to weaken the argument that Rise in wages will occur on a large scale and will drive up inflation ( As a result )_________________

Thanks and Regards

Abhishek....

PLEASE FOLLOW THE RULES FOR POSTING IN QA AND VA FORUM AND USE SEARCH FUNCTION BEFORE POSTING NEW QUESTIONS

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Aah great explanation , thank you for explaining so well . I think my mistake was overlooking the conclusion a bit and hence selected the wrong choice.

Quote:

megha_2709 wrote:

Hi,

Thank you for posting your explanation but I am confused here, it says in argument that opponents of this policy are saying that inflation rate would go up , are we weakening opponents argument or opposing the policy over here ,because C is says that it would drive up the inflation hence supporting the opponent argument.

Would really appreciate your help on this.

ThanksMegha

Rise in wages will occur on a small scale ------->Won't drive up the rate of Inflation

We are attempting to weaken the argument that Rise in wages will occur on a large scale and will drive up inflation ( As a result ) _________________

So we are strengthening the opponent view and that author is wrong ,rise in wages will lead to rise in inflation. I mistook the lines starting from infact as opponent point of view.

Thanks a lot for clarifying, great great help !!!

RegardsMegha

gmatclubot

In two months, the legal minimum wage in the country of
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16 May 2016, 13:47